New 5 gal Beta tank Setup/Help

[Ljohn207]

Hi, I'm just beginning a tank for a beta, I currently have a piece of driftwood in the tank with a small plant growing out of it, also a fake plant and a little fake sea anemone. however the water is kind of murky, and I do not know how to fix it. I also would like to add some live plants, but i do not know how to do it. any help or suggestions they would be greatly appreciated
Thannks!

 

[librarygirl]

Hi! Welcome to AA!

First thing you'll want to do is properly cycle the tank. There's a link in my signature called "new empty tank;" read it and it'll guide you. You'll need a bottle of pure ammonia (ACE hardware brand is best) and an API Master Test kit (don't get the strips; they cost more in the long-run and aren't reliable).

The cloudiness will go away in time. Is that real driftwood? It might be the tannins from the wood if you didn't soak it well enough. It'll go away as you do water changes, don't worry about it.

As for live plants, they need a lot of light, a T5 lighting system might be best. 2 watts per gallon I think is the minimum. You may want to do some research on the Freshwater Planted forum here and get some more info. Good luck! Nice tank!

 

[Atxpunx]

As for adding new plants, just wedge um in the gravel. It will be a lot of trial and error. So get in there and make some mistakes

 

[Ljohn207]

Thanks! and Yeah its real driftwood, I purchased it at my local pet store. And so your saying start all over again? take out all the water? and what do i do with the bottle of ammonia?
Also, i think that my fitler is too strong for the tank, is there anyway i can make the flow less?
thanks

 

[librarygirl]

Thanks! and Yeah its real driftwood, I purchased it at my local pet store. And so your saying start all over again? take out all the water? and what do i do with the bottle of ammonia?
Also, i think that my fitler is too strong for the tank, is there anyway i can make the flow less?
thanks

No you don't have to start over. You'll do water changes eventually and as you do them the water will clear if it's the drift wood causing the issue. You could take it out and boil it, or run it through a clean dishwasher a few times, that might help. Mine made my water look like tea for a few days, I did two water changes and it's been fine since. It depends on the wood too though I think.

You'll use the ammonia to cycle the tank before you add the fish. The ammonia mimics the ammonia the fish waste produce. All of the info is in the link in my signature (new empty tank) and you could read "what is cycling" and that'll give you info on why you should cycle the tank before you get fish.

As for the flow, what kind of filter is it? You could try putting a filter sponge or filter pad around the intake tube.

 

[Ljohn207]

Its a 5-15 tetra filter i think, and its not the intake as much as the out put, it makes a large current throughout the tank. and regarding the ammonium, how much should I add?

 

[librarygirl]

If it's just a 5 gal tank for a Betta you could get away with dosing to 2 PPM of ammonia instead of 3-4. Here's a calculator to help measure: Calculator So if your ammonia is 10% ammonium hydroxide and you want to dose to 2 ppm of ammonia, according to the calculator you'd need to dose 0.38 ML of ammonia. You won't need much. You could also just add a few drops, let it circulate for a half hour, test the water with your ammonia kit and see where it is on the test. If it's below 2, add a few more drops, let it circulate, test, etc. and repeat until you get to 2 ppm of ammonia on the API Kit chart.